System Volume Information Folders (System Restore)

The System Volume Information Folders contain your System Restore points. You can delete the oldest ones manually if you like. These folders are hidden system folders on each drive. In order to gain access, follow the directions below depending on your version of XP and File System:

Windows XP Professional or Windows XP Home Edition Using the FAT32 File System

Right-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder, and then click Sharing and Security

Click the Security tab

Click Add , and then type the name of the user to whom you want to give access to the folder. Choose the account location if appropriate (either local or from the domain). Typically, this is the account with which you are logged on. Click OK , and then click OK

Double-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder to open it

Windows XP Professional using the NTFS File System on a Workgroup

Click Start , and then click My Computer

On the Tools menu, click Folder Options

On the View tab, click Show hidden files and folders

Clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box. Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the change

Clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box

Click OK

Right-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder, and then click Sharing and Security

Click the Security tab

Click Add , and then type the name of the user to whom you want to give access to the folder. Typically, this is the account with which you are logged on. Click OK , and then click OK

Double-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder to open it

Windows XP Home Edition Using the NTFS File System

In Windows XP Home Edition with the NTFS file system, you must use the Cacls tool, which is a command-line tool to display or modify file or folder access control lists (ACLs)

Click Start , click Run , type cmd , and then click OK

Make sure that you are in the root folder of the partition for which you want to gain access to the System Volume Information folder. For example, to gain access the the C:\System Volume Information folder, make sure that you are in the root folder of drive C (at a "C:\" prompt). To get to the root of any partition, make sure you are in that partition and then type "cd\" (without the quotation marks).

Type the following line, and then press ENTER:

cacls "driveletter:\System Volume Information" /E /G username:F

Make sure to type the quotation marks as indicated. This command adds the specified user to the folder with Full Control permissions

Double-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder to open it

If you need to remove the permissions after troubleshooting, type the following line at a command prompt: